MOSCOW:Russia on Thursday broadcast a series of videos showing the testingand operation of a new generation of nuclear and conventional weapons, daysafter Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump discussed how to avoidan arms race.
President Putin announced an array of new nuclear weapons in March in oneof his most bellicose speeches in years, saying they could hit almost anypoint in the world and evade a US-built missile shield.
Both he and Trump, who held their first summit in Helsinki on Monday, havespoken of the need to avoid an arms race, and Putin has spoken of theurgent need to work to extend the new START strategic arms reduction treaty.
On Thursday, the Russian Defence Ministry aired Hollywood-style footage ofmany of the new weapons Putin unveiled in March being tested or in action.
It showed a Russian MiG-31 fighter jet taking off from an airfield carryingthe new Kinjal hypersonic missile and then launching it while airborne.
MiG-31 jets which patrol the Caspian Sea have been armed with the Kinjalsince April, the Interfax news agency reported.
The ministry also said it was preparing to conduct flight tests of a newnuclear-powered cruise missile, the Burevestnik or Storm Petrel.
The first footage of a live launch of the Avangard hypersonic missile,which Moscow says boasts “a glider manoeuvring warhead,” was also airedalong with a clip of the heavy Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile.
Putin’s boasts about the new weapons have been greeted with scepticism inWashington, where officials have cast doubt on whether Russia has added anynew capabilities to its nuclear arsenal beyond those already known to theUS military and intelligence agencies.